Navagation Menu

Oprah: King Forced US to Wake Up, Change

Over 200,000 people gathered around the Lincoln Memorial in Washington DC, where the civil rights March on Washington ended with Martin Luther King's 'I Have A Dream' speech on August 28th, 1963 (Photo: Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

WASHINGTON (AP) — Oprah Winfrey says Martin Luther King Jr. forced the nation “to wake up, look at itself and eventually change.” She says the civil rights leader’s lessons inspire people all over the world.

Speaking at the March on Washington ceremonies Wednesday, Winfrey said King recognized that Americans shared the same dreams and that their hopes weren’t different based on race. She says King was right when he said all Americans’ destinies are intertwined and would rise or fall based on how people treat their neighbors.

Winfrey, a media mogul, says she asked her mother as a 9-year-old girl why her family wasn’t there for the march. Winfrey says it took her 50 years, but she finally arrived on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial to mark the anniversary of King’s march.